4 Hurricane Names Retired After Record-Setting 2008 Storm Season

Hurricane Gustav became a hurricane on Aug. 26, making landfall in Haiti as a Category 1 hurricane. Gustav then struck western Cuba as a Category 4 hurricane, making its final landfall near Cocodrie, La., on Sept. 1 as a Category 2 hurricane. Hurricane force winds, storm surge and heavy rain produced more than $4 billion damage in Louisiana. Gustav killed 112 people, including 77 in Haiti.

The strongest hurricane to form in the Atlantic in 2008, and the third costliest storm ever to hit the United States, Hurricane Ike was a major Category 4 storm that, like the storms before it, battered Haiti, causing dozens of deaths there, and another seven in Cuba before it headed to the Texas coast.

An amazingly large storm, Ike seemed to cover a huge portion of the Gulf of Mexico as it slowly regained strength, before striking Galveston as a Category 2 storm Sept. 13, Ike became a hurricane on Sept. 3 and rapidly intensified to a Category 4 hurricane northeast of the Leeward Islands. The storm struck the Turks and Caicos Islands and Great Inagua Island in the Southeastern Bahamas on Sept. 7, and the northeast coast of Cuba later that day. Ike made its final landfall at Galveston Island, Texas on Sept. 13 as a Category 2 hurricane. Ike killed more than 80 people across the Caribbean and Bahamas, and another 20 in Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas. Total estimated U.S. property damage from Ike is estimated at $19.3 billion.

Paloma reached hurricane intensity on Nov. 7 and became the second strongest November Atlantic hurricane on record the next day, reaching Category 4. According to the Cuban government, more than 1,400 homes were destroyed on that island with $300 million U.S. dollars in damage.